Hello everybody! I'm going to be studying at BLCU in a few months. I was just wondering if I would encounter any problems if I would bring my xbox console to Beijing. I heard that video game consoles are banned or atleast heavily censored in China. Would the customs tke my console away?:(

@ Mike, Firstly let me express my sincere congratulations for your soon to become true encounter with China through studies at BLCU. Secondly, what the folks here are saying is partly right. Yes, you can buy a -fake- console almost anywhere in Beijing. Be
careful though. It is not as -fake- as Microsoft has put their fingers in it. In fact in cooperation with **** they have developed this -fake- console for Chinese market, which has a feature to eavesdrop everything what happens in the room, where the console
is placed (sic!). It is the only gaming stuff you can buy since 1989 (as mentioned by Ming). If the customs discovers you are trying to smuggle a real xbox from US... I don't want to be in your pants.

PS. If you decide to bring yours anyway, you will be considered as braveheart here. I send you a picture of a pony for encouragement. I suggest you put a little sticker with Chinese flag on it - all consoles sold in China have it.

Yes, you can bring your XBOX over here, but you will have to pay a little more for games if you want real ones. The fake ones can only be played on a chipped xbox, which means you cannot access XBOX LIVE because they can tell through the internet that your
system has been modded.

A VERY IMPORTANT NOTE~~~ if you are coming from the US (or some other countries?) you will need to get a POWER INVERTER once you get into China. This is not a plug adapter, but a little box that you switch on and off that changes the electrical current.

Depending on how long your stay is, they can also change the XBOX POWER UNIT from the inside so no power inverter is necessary, but you will still have to change if b4 u go back home.

Almost all laptops have a built in power inverter so you dont need to worry about that. IT should be written on your charger as 110~220 or something like that.

If you get tired of bullshit laowai prices at ZhongGuanCun, try the indie shops around GuLouDongDaJie, north of NanLuoGuXiang. It's also a great place to find those expensive sculpted Japanese anime miniatures that you can line up on your bookshelf and jack
off upon.

If you're into that. And I'm not. But I'm just saying that you can do that, and we can still be friends. I don't care. Just do whatever man.